The 13 Best Jack White Collaborations

On the heels of Jack White’s new album announcement as well as the unveiling of Blunderbuss‘s first single “Love Interruption,” we thought it was time to revisit the hits — not the literal ones, unfortunately — of White’s wide-reaching, strange and prolific career so far. So, here’s 13 of Jack White’s most memorable collaborations. Sorry Bobby D. For once, you didn’t make the cut.

13. Insane Clown Posse and JEFF The Brotherhood w/ Jack White

Definitely one of the higher-ranking moments in Jack White’s “WTF?” register, White collaborated with the kings of the Juggalos for a Third Man Records single, “Leck Mich Im Arsch” and its b-side, “Mountain Girl.” The press image, which is in the above gallery, is particularly spectacular.

“Leck Mich Im Arsch”

12. Jimmy Page and the Edge w/ Jack White

The guitar doc It Might Get Loud featured three guitar icons talking about their three very differing takes on the instrument and how they use it, and, well, it was kind of boring. But, a particular highlight of that film is when White records a new, improvised, “Fly Farm Blues” in ten minutes only using analog equipment. And it’s totally passable!

“Fly Farm Blues”

11. Conan O’Brien w/ Jack White

Conan and Jack White have crossed paths many times, perhaps most memorably as the performing guests on his NBC program Late Night With Conan O’Brien (they played that show’s final episode) or when Conan starred in their video for “The Denial Twist” video (true story: Stereogum senior writer Tom Breihan played a tall Conan clone in that video, or a “Clonan,” if you must). White then issued the spoken word Conan single “And You Call Me Mad?” last year.

“And You Call Me Mad?”

10. Alicia Keys w/ Jack White

We can’t say that we remember much about the second Daniel Craig Bond movie, Quantum Of Solace — do you? — but we did remember that White cranked out a serviceable Bond theme called “Another Way To Die” with Alicia Keys.

“Another Way To Die”

9. The Raconteurs

The Ranconteurs are a collection of Midwest rock all-stars like White, Brendan Benson and two members of vintage rock trio the Greenhornes. Sadly, the group never quite added up to the sum of its parts, though they did have some memorable singles. Like:

“Salute Your Solution”

8. Stephen Colbert w/ Jack White

White and Colbert hooked up on a couple of things, most notably the follow up to Colbert’s new-wave “hit” “Charlene (I’m Right Behind You)” called “Charlene II (I’m Over You).” Oh, and they read the National Anthem together on the NYC High Line park once. Listen:

Reciting the National Anthem:

7. The Rolling Stones w/ Jack White

Jack showed up to do “Lovin’ Cup” in the Stones’ Scorcese doc Shine A Light and it sounded pretty nice. A good Stones song choice for White, to be sure.

“Lovin’ Cup”

6. Electric Six w/ (uncredited) Jack White

Subject of rumor for years and years, and only recently sort-of-confirmed, Jack White’s vocals were uncredited on Electric Six’s awesome “Danger! High Voltage.”

“Danger! High Voltage”

5. Rome

Though Danger Mouse and Daniele Luppi’s collaborative LP Rome sounded like a mess on paper — it’s an homage to film music and spaghetti westerns and promised prominent roles from Norah Jones and Jack White — it actually turned out to be a pretty alright listen. White stars on a standout, “Two Against One.”

“Two Against One”

4. Wanda Jackson w/ Jack White

I’m about to tie some narratives together, are you ready? OK. Rockabilly queen Wanda Jackson used to date Elvis. Jack White played Elvis in Walk Hard. Jack White and Wanda Jackson teamed up to cover Bob Dylan’s “Thunder On The Mountain” for Jackson’s great 2011 LP The Party Ain’t Over. So, connections abound! Also, on a musical level, it made the most sense of anything ever for the roots-rock revering White to work with one of the titans of rockabilly, Jackson. So, they’re probably weren’t just looking for ways to trip degrees of separation for parlor games.

“Thunder On The Mountain”

3. The Dead Weather

When Jack White hooked up with the Kills’ Alison Mosshart to form the Dead Weather, the Internet went ape with the weight of the possibilities. But, the debut, Horehound was a little flat. For the second record, Sea Of Cowards, the band racheted up White’s vocal involvement a little more instead of stashing him behind the drums, and the product was better off for it.

“Blue Blood Blues”

2. Loretta Lynn w/ Jack White

Loretta Lynn’s White-produced-and-assisted Van Lear Rose generated a pair of Grammys and a mound of press, but you don’t really need to look further than album standout “Portland Oregon” to see why the relationship worked so well.

“Portland Oregon”

1. The White Stripes

the white stripes were less of a collaboration and more of jack white’s lift-off point for his classic blues-rock sound. the stripes may be his original creative outlet, but this is just his songs drowned in boom-crash beats from his wife/sister

Personally I would have put bands Jack White has been in/started off the list. That leaves 10 one-time collaborations.
hopefully we can add Jay-Z and Jack White when they finally get around to releasing that song they supposedly worked on.

First off, “Fly Farm Blues” is solo. The Edge and Jimmy Page don’t appear on the track.

Jack and Conan played live together on an Eddie Cochran cover for Conan’s “Live At Third Man” vinyl release, which I think makes more sense as a collaboration then Jack recording Conan talking. (Though the spoken word single is awesome.)

Are we really bagging on The Raconteurs? Are The White Stripes a “collaboration”…or, I don’t know, the band that made him famous so he could do collaborations?

And I think you missed his killer organ solo on JEFF The Brotherhood’s “Whatever I Want” single and his drumming on ex-wife # 2 Karen Elson’s solo album.

Glad you included ICP, though. I’m stil laughing about that one. So glad he did that.

He also showed up to play some live songs with none other than Bob Dylan. He’s also played live with Beck, Jeff Beck, Pete Townsend, The Flaming Lips, The Strokes, Dan Miller, Brian Muldoon (The Upholsterers), Billy Gibbons, Lou Reed, The Go, Mick Collins, Mark Ronson, The Last Shadow Puppets, a random street busker, etc.

Is it too facetious to admit I’m so amazed to live in a time that an Artist like Jack White can survive and thrive and cross all of these music genres and still hold such a grand stage. Always a fan. Jack White is God.

How the heck do you leave off the Loretta Lynn album??? Or at least the song “Portland, Oregon”? And how do you not consider the creation of Third Man Records overall (a collaboration between him and his nephew Ben Blackwell)? Fly Farm Blues was a solo track, so how exactly is that a collaboration? Very poor thought and research done here.

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